This document provides a history of digital and social media, beginning with early innovations like email in 1971 and personal computers in the 1970s. It discusses influential figures like Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Robert Metcalfe who helped develop early technologies and networks. Major social media platforms and dates are outlined, such as the launch of AOL in 1985, Google in 1998, and Facebook and YouTube in the mid-2000s. The rapid growth of social media participation from 6% of internet users in 2007 to 82% in 2011 is highlighted. The document also discusses concepts like the adoption lifecycle of technologies and the idea of social media creating an online layer of interaction and connectivity between people.

1. History &
Influencers of
Digital &
Social Media
Susan Fant
www.susanfant.com
www.fernweb.org
www.castlesandsllc.comThese Slides are for Educational Purposes Only – The
University of Alabama Marketing Department MKT597:
Digital & Social Media Marketing
Fall Semester 2013

2. What’s the Point of this
WHOLE COURSE?
“Our” generation has grown up
with social media.
This is our chance to PROVE “THEM” WRONG
Don’t fall for the hype:
We’re not the “give me’s”
We’re not the “trophy generation”
We’re not lazy, disrespectful, or irresponsible.

3. We’re The Tech Generation
(and we stand on the shoulders of giants)

4. History of Social Media
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=250AfhEZQb4

5. The Culture of Connectivity
by Jose Van Dijck - Oxford University Press
Innovation/Technology
Adoption Lifecycle
Sociological model
developed at Iowa
State University by Joe
Bohlen, George Beal &
Everett Rogers to
understand farmers’
adoption of hybrid
seed corn.
Helps us understand
people’s adoption of
new technologies.

6. Social Media Interaction
• Every day millions of individuals interact via
social media
• Dec. ’07 6% of the world’s Internet population
logged onto a social media site
• Dec. ’11, 82% of the world’s Internet
population (1.2 billion users) logged onto a
social media site
6 %  82%
….in 5 Years
Source: Culture of Connectivity

7. An Online Layer
Social Media: “a group of Internet-based
applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that
allow the creation and exchange of user-
generated content, [which] forms a new online
layer through which people organize their lives.”
Source: Kaplan & Haenlein 2010 , Van Dijick 2012

8. Interconnectedness
• Social media influences human interaction on
individual & societal levels
• Online & Offline “worlds” increasingly weave
themselves together
• “Participatory Culture”
– Nurtures connections
– Builds communities
– Advances democracy
Makes the
web “more
social”
Source: Culture of Connectivity

9. The Beginning of Networks
• 1971: The first e-mail is sent.
Ray Tomlinson (credited with
the @ sign in e-mail) sent his
message over military network
ARPANET.
• 1972: Steve Wozniak’s "blue
box" a tone generator to make
free phone calls. Wozniak sold
the boxes in dormitories at the
University of California
Berkeley... "If apprehended…you
tell the police: It´s just a music
box."
Source: Computer History Museum

10. “The Great & Powerful Woz”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K1uj9VmCzo

11. Steve Wozniak
• Stephen Wozniak
– known as "Woz”
– American inventor,
computer engineer
& programmer
– Co-founded Apple
Computer with Steve
Jobs and Ronald
Wayne
– www.woz.org
Source: www.woz.org

12. Beginnings of the Internet
• 1973 Robert Metcalfe
devised the Ethernet
method of network
connection at the Xerox
Palo Alto Research Center.
(Currently a professor at
UT Austin)
• 1983 ARPANET splits into
the ARPANET and MILNET.
ARPANET was renamed
the “Internet” in 1995.
• 1985: America Online
(AOL) service opened.
Source: Computer History Museum

13. Robert Metcalfe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=759nOXW5O_E

14. More Recent Web Dates
• 1997: The Web has 1
million
sites, Blogging, AOL
Instant
Messenger, Blackboard
• 1998: Google
• 2000: The “Online
Bubble Burst”
• 2001: Wikipedia
Begins, First iPods SoldSource: http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html

15. Larry Page & Sergey Brin
• Google founded by Larry Page
& Sergey Brin while they were
Ph.D. students at Stanford
University
• Mission Statement: "to
organize the world's
information and make it
universally accessible and
useful”
• Unofficial Slogan: Don’t be
evil.
• “Googleplex” in Mountain
View, California Source: Forbes

16. Even More Recent Web Dates
• 2003: Apple Introduces iTunes Store, MySpace.com
• 2004: Facebook, Podcasting, Digg
• 2005: 8 Billion+ Webpages, YouTube
• 2006: Twitter, Google indexed 25 Billion+ web pages
• 2007: Microsoft bought a stake in Facebook, iPhone released,
internet smartphones
• 2008: Twitter breaks a hard news story
• 2010: DNC hires “social media manager”
• 2012: Facebook 1 Billion Users, YouTube 1 Trillion Views/Year
• 2013: LinkedIn 225 Million Users, Pinterest 48.7 Million Users,
Reddit 69.9 Million Users, 156 Million Blogs, Astronauts on the
International Space Station tweet live from space to a global
audience
Source: http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html

17. Steve Jobs
• Steven Jobs
• American entrepreneur, marketer,
inventor
• Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO
Apple Inc.
• Co-Founder & Chief Executive of
Pixar Animation Studies
• Jobs brought Apple from near
bankruptcy to profitability by
1998
• Oversaw the development of the
iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad,
Apple Retail Store, iTunes Store,
the App Store
• Described as “Father of the Digital
Revolution”
Source: Forbes

18. Steve Jobs in the Midst of the
Computer Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm9uVqgRkoU&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLMdDrIM5JRUmeLIRd3P0AFo3D-AYw4xEj

19. Socio-Political Thoughts about
Social Media
• Computers = Liberation (1970’s – 1984ish)
• You = World Changing Potential of Connection (2006)
• Social Media Can Benefit the Common Good (2010)
Continuous debate on the Internet as a tool of commerce
or as a social benefit “good for all human kind”
Internet.org  Looking to increase the global population
of Internet users & internet access in developing nations
Source: Culture of Connectivity

20. Arianna Huffington
• Arianna Huffington – Greek
American author and founder
of The Huffington Post
• 2009: Huffington named on
Forbes Most Influential Women
in Media & The Guardian’s Top
100 in Media Lists
• 2011: AOL acquires The
Huffington Post for $315 million
• 2012: the site wins a Pulitzer
Prize for reporting
Source: The Huffington Post & Wiki

21. How Do We Make
Influencers More Diverse?
• There are many “up and coming” influencers who
are minorities
• Many women influencers in social media are
involved in blogging, tech (software and
hardware) and content creation
• Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook) and Marissa Mayer
(Yahoo) are two women on the move in this
industry
Bottom Line: The more we teach all people to code
the better off we will be in technology.

22. Social Capital: It’s Who You Know
• Social Media (and the industry that creates it)
lives and breathes social capital.
– There are multiple types of capital: social capital
focuses on networks and people.
• Popularity Principle
– How many connections do you have? What can
your network do? Are you an “influencer”?
– Weak Ties & Strong Ties
Source: Culture of Connectivity

23. Internet.org
www.internet.org

24. Digital Marketing & Social Media:
“The New Town Square”
• Social Network Sites
Ex. Facebook, LinkedIn
• User Generated Content Sites
Ex. YouTube, Flickr
• Trading and Marketing Sites
Ex. Amazon, Ebay, Groupon
• Play and Game Sites
Ex. Angry Birds, Sims
Source: Culture of Connectivity

25. Questions?